ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
2021 Student Conference
April 8–10, 2021
Virtual Meeting
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2021
Jul 2020
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2021
Nuclear Technology
February 2021
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2021
Latest News
NC State celebrates 70 years of nuclear engineering education
An early picture of the research reactor building on the North Carolina State University campus. The Department of Nuclear Engineering is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its nuclear engineering curriculum in 2020–2021. Photo: North Carolina State University
The Department of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University has spent the 2020–2021 academic year celebrating the 70th anniversary of its becoming the first U.S. university to establish a nuclear engineering curriculum. It started in 1950, when Clifford Beck, then of Oak Ridge, Tenn., obtained support from NC State’s dean of engineering, Harold Lampe, to build the nation’s first university nuclear reactor and, in conjunction, establish an educational curriculum dedicated to nuclear engineering.
The department, host to the 2021 ANS Virtual Student Conference, scheduled for April 8–10, now features 23 tenure/tenure-track faculty and three research faculty members. “What a journey for the first nuclear engineering curriculum in the nation,” said Kostadin Ivanov, professor and department head.
C. A. Gentile, T. Kozub, S. W. Langish, L. P. Ciebiera, A. Nobile, J. Wermer, K. Sessions
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 54 | Number 2 | August 2008 | Pages 371-374
Technical Paper | Tritium and Inertial Fusion | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1833
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A conceptual design is proposed to support the recovery of un-expended fuel, ash, and associated postdetonation products resident in plasma exhaust from a ~ 2 GW IFE direct drive power reactor. The design includes systems for the safe and efficient collection, processing, and purification of plasma exhaust fuel components. The system has been conceptually designed and sized such that tritium bred within blankets, lining the reactor target chamber, can also be collected, processed, and introduced into the fuel cycle. The system will nominally be sized to process ~ 2 kg of tritium per day and is designed to link directly to the target chamber vacuum pumping system. An effort to model the fuel recovery system (FRS) using the Aspen Plus engineering code has commenced. The system design supports processing effluent gases from the reactor directly from the exhaust of the vacuum pumping system or in batch mode, via a buffer vessel in the Receiving and Analysis System. Emphasis is on nuclear safety, reliability, and redundancy as to maximize availability. The primary goal of the fuel recovery system design is to economically recycle components of direct drive IFE fuel. The FRS design is presented as a facility sub-system in the context of supporting the larger goal of producing safe and economical IFE power.